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                         Rural Outreach Concerts

Rural Outreach Concerts is an initiative whereby concert projects are taken on the road to small rural towns in Eastern Iowa. The goal is to bring high-quality chamber music to rural audiences in a non-threatening way in the comfort of their own environments.

The collaborations with rural sites • build audience for chamber music art form, • serve the cultural needs of the under-served rural population in Iowa, and • offer expanded performance opportunities for musicians.

Rural Outreach Concerts was initiated in FY99 with a concert at Sts. Peter & Paul Community Center — a former Catholic Church in Solon, Iowa with strong ties to the local Czech community. It is located on a gravel road in the country near Solon, and has become an activity center that draws audience from many surrounding rural communities. Since that time, rural performances has expanded to rural libraries, early twentieth-century opera houses, restored historical churches, and more. One example is the St. Wenceslaus Church in Spillville, Iowa, where Antonin Dvorak played the organ when he resided in this rural Czech community with his family in the summer of 1893.

A strong and long-time collaborator is the Ainsworth Opera House. Mike Zahs, the Programming Director, is passionate about bringing culture to rural communities. He writes:

“We had over 100 people attend the concert (near our capacity), and they enjoyed the experience greatly. Our community, as well as most other small Iowa communities, has a great and appreciative audience. Most of the opera house audience would not feel comfortable attending a chamber music concert in Iowa City. At the opera house, they can sit with people they know and be more at ease being in the audience.” 

Rural Outreach Concerts are funded, in part, by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Augustine Foundation, Chamber Music America and The Iowa Arts Council.